If I ever even *look* at a car from up North again..

..slap me. Twice.

So, I decide it's fuel filter time on the black Corrado. Past time, really--it started cutting off riding down the street. Filter on these cars fits in a ring with two little hooks, and there's a 5mm hex bolt run though a hole in the open end to mate with a 10mm nut. Here's a tiny pic of the one from the Passat (eBay won't let me hotlink the big one, it seems).

The hooks act as hangers off of the main mounting bracket (sound like a German car yet?). The way this is supposed to work is that you remove the lines, remove two 17mm nuts holding the bracket to the car, and then release the tension on the bolt through the ring bracket to remove the filter.

So, up on the stands we go (filter's underneath the pan, in front of the RR wheel). First, the hose clamps were encrusted with rust. 1/4th a can of PB Blaster later, the rear clamp gives. But not the front. I end up getting the wiring cutters out, digging in the slowly growing hole with the screwdriver, and just keep cutting the little screw housing until I can wiggle the screw out with the needle-nosed pliers. Okay, lines free.

Next, the 17mm nuts holding the bracket to the body. Toast. Absolutely fused to the bracket. Break out the 3/4" drive stuff, give it a twist. Creaks & groans like Granpa trying to get up at dawn, but no dice. Pull a little harder, and one of the jackstands creaks. Evacuate, reset both jackstands.

I discover that I can get to the 5mm hex and the 10mm bolt holding the "ring" to the larger bracket, so let's try that! Only 5mm hex I have is a hex key. If I put the short end in the bolt, there's not enough room to get my hand around it. So, the long end goes in the bolt, and I get an old closed-end wrench on the short end so I can apply enough torque to keep the thing from spinning. Nothing will budge. Another 1/4 can of Blaster later, I can finally get the thing to move. Finally the "hooks" fall out of the holes, and the thing is free.

The filter won't come out of the ring. Another 1/4 can of Blaster (and Serious Screwdriver Violence Pt.2!!), and three hours into what's supposed to be a half-hour job, it's out. Turns out the filter was rusted to the ring.

Now then, how to get it back in? I can't keep the ring's hooks in the slots of the larger bracket without squeezing the ring. And if I'm squeezing the ring, I don't have a hand to keep the hex bolt from turning (I tried cleaning up the theads with the wire brush, but no dice-still need a wrench) when I tighten the bolt. Ended up taking the new filter back out of the ring, and tightening the thing until it hung pretty loosely from the bracket. Fortunately, the filter still fits. In it goes, new clamps for the hoses, and done. Four stinking hours for a berkeleying fuel filter.

Moral of the story: Y'all who live in the land of Ice & Salt, I would wish to express my most profound respect. I've read stories of you folks doing this kind of work in unheated garages and unpaved driveways in winter. Hardcore stuff, I admire you.

But if one of you ever offers to sell me another car from up there, I'm going to insult your genetics, and slowly saunter away in a fog of hatred.

Sorry about the length, folks..I just needed to vent, and this is the first place I thought of when I wanted to talk about working on cars.

I heard that in California they dont even have to use a torch on year old exhaust. The bolts just come right out! They must come up with flat rate times in such a magic place.

Sounds like you found an easy one.

You live in Atlanta, why would you think of buying a car anywhere else?

I've sworn off any vehicles that have ever been north of the Mason-Dixon line. You're lucky. When I take bolts out they spin freely - but they're bringing a chunk of crusty body panel with them.

it's funny. my saab c900 came from ohio.. and is practically rust free... it even came to me on snow tyres... so I know it saw the white stuff and the salt they use to melt it..

EvanB wrote: You live in Atlanta, why would you think of buying a car anywhere else?

Atlanta Craiglist's dirty secret: a lot of those "cool" cars were not originally purchased in the South. Natives here back in the day seemed to either buy domestics, or Japanese appliances. And usually only buy imports when fuel gets expensive. My RL friends who are into 50s-70s American cars love to see a "clean Southern car", but if you're a Southern guy who loves imports the same phrase means, "..ugh, I'll have to source a manual transmission for it.."

My own mom bought a CRX in `91, it was an HF with an automatic. That is the kind of "furrin" cars most native Southerners buy when they finally decide to give up on US brands.

Good example might be my Mk.2 GTI. I bought a GTI new. Not a lot of people did, most folks down here still looked at VW as an appliance, rather than a fun car. There's a lot of old Mk.2 used mechanical parts here, but not much of the trim I need to finish a GTI. The last two Mk.2s I've seen on the street here in Acworth were both diesels. One Jetta, one Golf--both base models.

Dude, this is not in any way, shape or form a "flame". You just got me thinking, and I tried to explain!

EDIT: I guess what I'm trying to say is that there might be good clean chassis down here, but not many of the real versions of cars we love. Look at the hot rod guys using old Southern 6-cyl Mustangs/Camaros to build "tributes" to RS/SS/Z28/Shelby/whatever. Remember my mom's HF. Even if the tub is clean, I have a BMW E36-ton of work if I want to build a clean Si.

This won't help. I just re-did the diff gasket on my 87 4Runner. Sucked because you need to pull the axles, Ford 9 inch style. Nut after nut, I took things apart. Easy. As. Pie. Why? My truck spent 425,000 mile of it's life in Montana, the land of no salt.

I didn't squeeze a drop of blood.

The kid had a 1995 Lumina that had CEL OBD 1 issue I couldn't fix.

I tried forever to change the rusted original fuel filter in 2009 and gave up after many hours and rust chipped filled eyes. Mentally I was ready to use a torch.

Hey, Mr. Mechanic; can throw a new fuel filter on that car? It was worth whatever I paid (half of).

Yes, cars from up here suck. Brake line changes every 3-4 years, always in winter with snow on ground. It's worse if you pull it inside and turn on the heat, because the salty slush melts and burns your eyes.

I've done more than i care to remember in the snow on a gravel driveway with rust chunks falling in my eyes. This is why i started buying southern projects and driving ohio vehicles in the winter so the clean stuff stays clean. Rust sucks

There are guys who advertise rot repair services for caravan front strut towers. That's how bad it is.

On the GM J body the filter is hooked up on one end to a steel line with a flare nut that rusts to the tubing, and on the other by a nylon line with a mostly steel quick disconnect on a nylon line. Changing my filter cost me $30 instead of $7, Dorman conveniently makes a repair line with a all plastic connector and a splice barb. The hardline flare is special too, dorman makes a splice kit, I just spun the filter off the line.

Around here you usually drive a DD till the jacking points collapse into the body, then sell it to some teenage kid for $800.

I once wrecked my car in February and rebuilt it after school, in the driveway, usually at night. Replaced the k frame, the passenger side strut, spindle and tie rod, fender liner and half ass hammered out the fender, in 0* F weather. In those conditions you work until your hands freeze, go inside to warm up, and go at it again. Those halogen work lamps and kerosene salamander heaters are worth their weight in gold.

oldtin wrote:

Dayumm. Is that from your TR-4?

On my mercedes with CIS the fuel filter and fuel accumulator have rubber/plastic jacket which prevents the bracket from fusing to the filter/accumulator. If the Vdub is similar I think whoever installed the filter last time around didn't use the jacket which cause the issue you are having.

the simple answer for this problem would have been a propane torch- get the offending fasteners and what not nice an hot, then shoot them with a good penetrating oil- i like the PB Blaster gel, myself. after you spray it, yout then tap everything a little bit with a hammer to get the penetrating oil to penetrate.. do that a few times over a period of days, and pretty much anything will come right apart..

and, yes, you can use a propane torch on a fuel filter- just be careful of any plastic lines that are in the area, because they will melt..

I can use a hammer on my nadz, but I won't.

In reply to friedgreencorrado:

Nah - that's a 95 e-36. Both front fenders were full of rust - the undercoating was holding together. Three good sized holes in the floor. Finished cutting out the rot and putting in new metal last night. The TR4 (from KY) had significantly less rust than the e-36 from OH.

oldtin wrote: In reply to friedgreencorrado: Nah - that's a 95 e-36. Both front fenders were full of rust - the undercoating was holding together. Three good sized holes in the floor. Finished cutting out the rot and putting in new metal last night. The TR4 (from KY) had significantly less rust than the e-36 from OH.

Oh, I forgot that you had that one. Moment I saw "E36", I seemed to remember a thread you made about how it was worse than you thought once you got it home, but I can't find a link to it. Have to admit, when I was underneath my car, I thought I saw some red bubbling through the undercoat. Scary prospect for the future.

logdog wrote: I heard that in California they dont even have to use a torch on year old exhaust. The bolts just come right out! They must come up with flat rate times in such a magic place.

Y'know, I never even thought about what a PITA it must be to someone who works on cars for a living. A few of my buddies here are professionals..I almost physically shuddered when your blast of insight hit my brain. The thought makes me want to start a non-profit org to feed the starving mechanics of North America.

friedgreencorrado wrote:

logdog wrote: I heard that in California they dont even have to use a torch on year old exhaust. The bolts just come right out! They must come up with flat rate times in such a magic place.

Y'know, I never even thought about what a PITA it must be to someone who works on cars for a living. A few of my buddies here are professionals..I almost physically shuddered when your blast of insight hit my brain. The thought makes me want to start a non-profit org to feed the starving mechanics of North America.

As odd as it sounds, as a tech in Columbus, Ohio I could get a real good idea what part of the state a car came from. Northeast was by far the worst.

We would get fuel filler recalls on 86-89 accords that would come in even into 2010 when I left the shop. The recall was to fix rusty fuel fillers but there often wasnt enough quarter panel to fasten the new part to. Sometimes an 88-91 civic/crx would come in that was so rotted we would only lift it on the alignment rack for fear of folding it in two.

In reply to logdog:

The professionals I know best are a father & son team running an indie VW shop (we used to race together in SCCA). I have a vague memory of asking them why they were putting some cars over the pit (where the alignment stuff was mounted), instead of on the lift when they were doing something other than alignment. IIRC, the increasingly cranky dad said something like "..all these damn girls from New England moving down here for work, those cars are rotted like a wooden boat."

This was about the late 1990s, he was talking about base model Mk.2 Golf/Jettas. Actually, lots of Jettas.

But if one of you ever offers to sell me another car from up there, I'm going to insult your genetics, and slowly saunter away in a fog of hatred.

If this doesn't wind up in "say what" I'll be confused.

I really wish that northern Illinois used sand instead of salt. I'd rather have to repaint a car every several years than constantly battle car cancer.

Half the population of this state would be dead from less traction. They can't even drive in slush-WAIT! Is there a downside to my argument?

I hate salt. When I was down in VA last year, an old Cav drove by. I was in shock to see one of those without rust.

friedgreencorrado wrote: EDIT: I guess what I'm trying to say is that there might be good clean chassis down here, but not many of the *real* versions of cars we love. Look at the hot rod guys using old Southern 6-cyl Mustangs/Camaros to build "tributes" to RS/SS/Z28/Shelby/whatever. Remember my mom's HF. Even if the tub is clean, I have a BMW E36-ton of work if I want to build a clean Si.

You may have a E36 M3 ton of work to do building a clean Si but it is still better than rust repair.